An acquaintance recently told me that working to stop war is like spitting in the wind. “We will always have war, get over it,” he said. He was referring to an organization of which I’m a member, Veterans for Peace.

Peace not war. We firmly believe that war can be prevented if enough people stand (shoulder to shoulder) and refuse to follow the drumbeat of war popularized in our media. We urge other veterans organizations to join with us to celebrate peace not war. We urge them to speak out in opposition to threats of war by our leaders with no regard for the victims of war. We urge other veteran organizations to join us in our opposition to the current seven undeclared wars we are now waging in Muslim nations.

Veterans for Peace opposed the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003 and marched at every Veterans Day parade in Binghamton from 2003 to 2016. We were jeered the first two years for our banner that read: “Support the Troops—Bring Them Home”. By the parade of 2006 people on the sidelines were clapping and cheering when we marched by.

The mission of Veterans for Peace is:

1. To increase public awareness of the causes and costs of war.

2. To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in internal affairs of other nations.

3. To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.

4. To ask justice for veterans and victims of war.

5. To abolish war as an instrument of foreign policy.

To achieve these goals, members of Veterans for Peace pledge to use non-violent means and to maintain an organization that is both democratic and open with the understanding that all members are trusted to act in the best interests of the group for the larger purpose of world peace.

Our VFP Chapter 90 of Broome County has again been denied to participate in the upcoming Veterans Day Parade of 2017. The Broome County parade committee denial is based on the autocratic claim that we are “not a veterans organization.” We plan on doing our walk again, proudly carrying our Veterans for Peace flag on Nov. 11. Although 80 percent of our local and national Veterans for Peace membership are veterans, we invite anyone in the community to join us that day.

Since Nov. 11 is the day our nation traditionally celebrated peace (the end of WWI) by ringing church bells throughout the land, we hope that this year, all churches will ring their bells at 11 a.m.… the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in a celebration of peace, not a glorification of war.